Just-in-Time or Just-in-Case? Time, Learning Analytics, and the Library

In this essay, we explore the timescapes of library learning analytics. We contend that just-in-time strategies, a feature of late capital modes of production, New Public Management, and future-oriented risk-management strategies inform the adoption of learning analytics. Learning analytics function as a form of temporal governmentality: current performance is scrutinized in order to anticipate future performance and prescribe just-in-time interventions to mitigate risk—not only for the student but also for the institution. Ultimately, we argue that using time as a lens to examine discourses surrounding library learning analytics reveals the temporalities reproduced in this discourse, which obscures questions of power, politics, and history. In describing what the future is, rather than what it could or should be, this discourse erases our ability to shape our futures, and our responsibility for so doing

Towards a Critical Turn in Library UX

In the past decade, cataloguing and classification and information literacy have experienced a critical turn, acknowledging the political, economic, and social forces that shape complex information environments. Library user experience (UX) has yet to undergo such a transformation, however; instead, it continues to be seen as a toolkit of value-neutral approaches for evaluating and improving library services and spaces to enhance user satisfaction and engagement. Library UX draws upon ethnography but is also informed by the principles and values of usability and design. Little attention has been paid to the origins or epistemological underpinnings of UX as a construct, the ways these inform UX practice, and ultimately, how they impact what academic libraries are and what they do, however. With the exception of a 2016 article by Lanclos and Asher, the relationship between corporatism, UX, and the mission and values of academic libraries has yet to be acknowledged or examined. This paper seeks to address this gap. While a handful of library UX practitioners have started to promote a more thoughtful study of individuals\u27 activities and needs, in the main, library UX remains a theoretically weak practice, one that sets out to solve complex problems with practical “solutions.” The failure to interrogate UX as a construct and a practice necessarily forecloses the user-centered problems we address, the tools and strategies we use, and the solutions we propose. We contend that UX would benefit from a deeper engagement with user-centered theories emerging from Library and Information Science (LIS) and critical and feminist perspectives on practice, embodiment, and power or risk perpetuating oppressive, hegemonic ideas about the academic library as a white space and its users as able-bodied

The interaction of class and gender in illness narratives

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2008 BSA Publications Ltd.Perspectives on gender and identity that emphasize variability of performance, local context and individual agency have displaced earlier paradigms.These are now perceived to have supported gender stereotypes and language ideologies by emphasizing gender difference and homogeneity within genders. In a secondary analysis of health and illness narratives we explore the interaction of class and gender in individuals' constructions of gendered identity. High social class men perform gender in particularly varied ways and we speculate that this variable repertoire, including the use of what was once termed `women's language', is linked to a capacity to maintain social distinction and authority. Men's performance of conventional masculinity is often threatened by both the experience of illness and being interviewed about personal experience. Lower social class women in particular demonstrate an intensification of a pre-existing informal family and support group culture, marking successful members by awarding them the accolade of being `lovely'.ESR

Reduction in Drinking Days and Binge Drinking Days among Patients Receiving Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment Services during an Emergency Department Visit: Six-month Results

Alcohol screening and brief intervention (SBI) is effective in many health-care settings. Previous research has shown significant decreases in harmful drinking due to SBI, but many studies, particularly in emergency/trauma settings, did not use a control group. Thus, it is unclear if observed decreases in harmful drinking are due to the intervention or other factors such as the hospital visit, the substance use assessment, or simply regression to the mean. This project assessed the effectiveness of an SBI program implemented at an urban hospital in the US state of Georgia

A Cryptosporidium parvum genotype shift between week old and two week old calves following administration of a prophylactic antiprotozoal

This study looked to assess the stability of Cryptosporidium parvum genotypes in calves between the final day of treatment with the antiprotozoal halofuginone lactate and seven days post-treatment. Paired faecal samples were collected on the final day of treatment and seven days later from 54 calves across seven farms in South-west England. The presence of Cryptosporidium species was detected using polymerase chain reaction targeting the 18 s rDNA. The presence and genotype of C. parvum was determined by PCR and amplicon sequencing targeting the gp60 locus. On farms where C. parvum was detected at both sampling times there was a distinct genotype shift. Detection of gp60 genotype IIaA15G2R1 decreased from 40% to 7% while IIaA17G1R1 increased from 0% to 41%, supplemented by IIaA16G3R1 in one sample. A shift in C. parvum genotypes present in calves within a one week sampling timeframe has not been described prior to this study, indicating that the timeframe is likely suitable for observing variation in C. parvum populations and interactions with antiprotozoal control strategies